SPARK 8.1.6 Release Notes

The SPARK 8.1.6 release has been postponed from Saturday, March 1st to Saturday, March 8th. This update includes new business and personal documentation questions for lead forms. The maintenance window will occur from 6:00 PM CT on Saturday, March 8th through 9:00 AM CT on Sunday, March 9th.

What's New

Documentation Questions in Lead Forms

We have added the ability to add documentation questions for both the applicant business and the individual who is applying for financing. With this update, you can now request or require applicants to provide specific documents when submitting a lead form.

Once a question is added to your lead form, you have full control over the associated document placeholders. Key features include:

• Default Year Configuration: If a document placeholder requires a year (e.g., tax returns or financial statements), SPARK defaults to the typical number of years requested for the product, but this can be adjusted as needed.

• Optional vs. Required: Each document placeholder can be set as optional or required.

• Customizable Order: You can control the order in which document placeholders appear in the list.

For business documentation questions, SPARK intelligently adjusts the available document placeholders based on the business age (startup, new, or existing) and, if provided, the date of formation. Key rules include:

• If a document placeholder requires a year (e.g., tax returns), SPARK dynamically determines which placeholders to display.

• For startups, tax return placeholders will not be shown, as no filings exist.

• For new businesses (operating for two years or less), SPARK will display up to two years of tax return placeholders, depending on the time of year.

These rules apply to any business document placeholder that requires a year, ensuring applicants are only asked for relevant documents.

If you are interested in adding the new documentation question to your existing lead forms, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

What's Changed

Warnings from Lumos

Customers using the integrated Lumos PRIME+ Score will now see warnings returned from Lumos. The two warnings observed since the Lumos release include:

• Loan Amount Exceeds $500,000 – While the model was not trained on loans over $500,000, performance remains acceptable. Despite a slight dip in accuracy, PRIME+ still outperforms consumer and small business credit scoring models.

• Low Business Address Match Accuracy – If the primary business address match falls below the 0.75 threshold, the validity of the address should be checked as it may impact the score.

Default Values for Bankruptcy and Lawsuits in Lumos PRIME+ Activity

Workflow designers now have the flexibility to specify the default values for bankruptcy and lawsuits when a PRIME+ report is ordered via an automation activity. Previously, SPARK automatically defaulted these values to 'Unknown'.

Companion Package Summary Section for Credit Memos

We've introduced the ability to indicate whether any or all loans in a companion loan scenario are multi-disbursement loans. If you'd like to include this information in your companion credit memos, your Customer Success Manager can assist with the configuration.

Removal of "Contact Us" Page

The "Contact Us" page has been removed as it was redundant. Please continue to submit support tickets directly in SPARK using the "Send a Ticket" action.

Encryption Algorithm Update

We've updated our encryption algorithm for encrypting data at rest and improved the way field-level encryption keys are managed.

Interim Loan Indicator in Reporting

The field for identifying if a loan package in SPARK is an interim loan has been added to our reporting dataset.

Updates to NAICS Default and Charge Off Rates

We've refreshed SPARK's NAICS default and charge off rates using the latest dataset for the 7(a) program. The updated figures now incorporate all loans from FY 2020 through 12/31/2024. You can review the dataset here: 7(a) 504 FOIA Data.

SBA Form 413

SBA Form 413 has been updated to match the current version of the form provided by the SBA.

What's Been Fixed

• Lumos PRIME+: Several hotfixes were released to address issues with ordering PRIME+ reports:

  • PRIME+ reports were not retrieved when an address warning or loan amount warning were included in the response.

  • The underlying PRIME+ report document was not being retrieved when ordering through an automation.

  • The underlying PRIME+ report document was not being displayed on the scoring dashboard.

• Decision Tracking Validation for Companion Packages: A hotfix was released to resolve an issue with the standard decision tracking validator in companion package scenarios. Previously, even when an approval was documented for both packages, the validator incorrectly failed for one package.

• Package Owner in PDF Forms: The package owner is now included in the team member collection that PDF form designers use to create lender-defined forms.

• Guaranty Percentage on Companion Packages: We have fixed an issue preventing the default Guaranty Percentage from being manually overridden on companion packages.

• If a Companion Package Letter of Interest or Commitment Letter is generated and one of the companion packages is later withdrawn or declined, regenerating the letter will now automatically exclude the withdrawn or declined package.

Find Out More

Stay tuned for the latest features and subscribe to your favorite categories. You can view our product roadmap at any time here.

If you have any feedback or questions, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or submit a ticket to the SPARK Support Team. Your feedback will help us make SPARK the best loan origination software in the market!